Tesco adopts strict crustacean welfare policy

Tesco, a British multinational groceries and retailer, releases farmed crabs, lobsters, crayfish, shrimp, and prawns welfare policy

Tesco will not sell any live decapod crustaceans in stores and online. By 2026, 100 percent of its farmed Penaeus vannamei shrimp will be electrically

As one of the world’s largest retailers by revenue, Tesco’s public commitment to ensuring high welfare throughout the lifecycle (farming, transport and slaughter) of farmed decapod crustaceans (crabs, lobsters, crayfish, shrimp, and prawns) in its supply chain, is a bold and significant step towards recognizing the sentience of these animals.

This policy outlines Tesco UK & ROI’s farmed decapod crustacean welfare commitments and applies to all own label Tesco Welfare Approved (TWA) farmed decapod crustaceans in the following categories:

• Fresh
• Frozen
• Canned
• Pre Prepared

This policy covers practices applied during capture, on-board holding/sorting, landing, storage, transport, slaughter and the general handling of farmed decapod crustaceans. It will also reference our Tesco Welfare Approved standard for some farming specific practices, and should be read in conjunction with our overarching Animal Welfare Policy More information can be shared with suppliers wanting to understand prerequisites to supplying Tesco in line with decapod crustacean welfare.

This policy specifically covers farmed Decapod Crustaceans, there is an ongoing review into our wild sourced decapod crustacean supply chains and a separate policy will be published for wild sourced in due course.

Purpose

• Animal health and welfare is a key component of our wider sustainable farming agenda and our requirements and approach in this area include:
• Tesco Welfare Approved (TWA) standards, which are species specific and follow the Five Freedoms proposed by the Farm Animal Welfare Committee, aim to ensure transparency across our supply chains and are designed and regularly reviewed to drive improvement.
• All farms must comply with a recognised farm assurance scheme, such as Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC), Global GAP or BAP 4*, in addition to meeting our TWA requirements.
• Tesco are committed to the reduction in antibiotic usage as part of the Food Industry Initiative on Antimicrobials (FIIA) and publicly report progress.
• Regular submission of Welfare Outcome Measure data evidencing key health and welfare parameters
• Tesco is committed to high standards of animal welfare in all of its supply chains, which Tesco manage through sourcing strategies, policies and species-specific welfare standards.  Tesco continually develop these to ensure demonstrable best practice, consistent with industry advances, research and changes to legislation, through a combined process of supplier consultation and engagement with NGOs. The current policy is the result of this process and Tesco recognise the valuable contributions from our suppliers, Crustacean Compassion, the Shrimp Welfare Project, Aquatic Life Institute and World Wildlife Fund in articulating our commitments for Farmed Decapod Crustaceans.
• For the customers, Tesco source farmed Decapod Crustaceans including Penaeus vannamei (white leg prawns) and Penaeus monodon (tiger prawns).  Now legally recognized as ‘sentient’ beings (Animal Welfare (Sentience) Act 2022) their welfare, like all other species in our supply chains, is of the utmost importance. Consequently Tesco have species-specific welfare policies, covering all aspects of farming, transport and slaughter, in place for all our farmed species, including Decapod Crustaceans. Compliance with these policies is independently audited and suppliers additionally hold independent certification against a recognized assurance standard such as ASC, Global GAP or BAP 4*. Regular submission of Welfare Outcome Measure data evidencing key health and welfare parameters is also a requirement from each supplying site.
• With this continuous improvement process Tesco aim to build a supply base that can both share learnings where appropriate but also identify risk at an earlier stage and mitigate in a sustainable way. Further detail  on our approach can be found in our latest Animal Health and Welfare report.

In addition to these requirements, Tesco have committed to the following decapod animal health and welfare targets:

Tesco Commitments 

1. We will not sell any live decapod crustaceans in stores at any of our sites or online

We recognise that there are several major welfare concerns with the transport, storage and eventual slaughter of Decapod Crustaceans when sold as live either through retail stores or online retailing. We therefore commit to prohibiting the sale of any live decapod crustaceans through our stores or online.

2. We will ensure that 100% of our suppliers comply with recognised farm assurance schemes, such as ASC, Global GAP or BAP 4*

Farm assurance schemes play an integral part in the management of farmed decapod crustaceans, ensuring farming practices protect and improve the health and welfare of these animals whilst adhering to  legislative requirements. Our suppliers must hold certification against a recognised assurance scheme that is compliant with ISO 17020 inspection requirements as a prerequisite of supply, 100% of our suppliers are compliant with this commitment. This applies to all stages of the supply chain, including hatcheries, farms and feeds mills. In addition to this, Tesco use independent audits to assess suppliers against our Tesco Welfare Approved (TWA) species specific standards, more detail of which can be found in our annual report.

3. We will ensure that 100% of decapod crustacean feed achieves a Forage Fish/Oil Dependency Ratio of <1 by 2030

We recognise that all farmed species require a nutritious, balanced diet to promote health growth and optimal nutritional value for our consumers. For most aquatic species, this has traditionally been achieved through the inclusion of fishmeal & fish oil sourced from wild caught fish. However, the industry has been examining more sustainable sources of ingredients, such as trimmings and the use of novel ingredients. Tesco will work with our supply base to support the reduction of wild sourced fishmeal and fish oil used in diets, to ensure that all of our suppliers obtain a Forage Fish & Oil Dependency Ratios of <1.

4. 100% of our farmed Penaeus vannamei are electrically stunned by 2026

We acknowledge that humane slaughter must include an effective mechanism of stunning the animal prior to slaughter. At present a minority of our decapod crustaceans are stunned using thermal shock as the standalone method i.e. immersed in salt water with temperature below 4 degrees-C (iced water or ice slurry) , with strict monitoring of ice slurry temperatures and water conditions. However, we recognise and support the move to the use of electrical stunning of decapod crustaceans as a more effective and humane method. For Penaeus vannamei, we already have implementation of electrical stunning across a proportion of the supply base and are committed to achieving 100% adoption of this best practice approach for P. Vannamei by 2026. In addition, we are currently exploring the practicalities of implementing this across our P. Monodon supply chains with our suppliers.

5. 100% of broodstock used to produce the post-larvae (PL) for Tesco are ablation free by 2026 (Penaeus Vannamei) or 2027 (Penaeus Monodon)

Eye Stalk ablation has been used extensively within the shrimp industry to increase fertility in broodstock, however, the practice is recognised as a welfare concern.  Only post larvae sourced from non-ablated female broodstock will be accepted into Tesco supply chains from 2026 for Penaeus vannamei and 2027 for Penaeus monodon.

Tesco plc is a British multinational groceries and general merchandise retailer headquartered in Welwyn Garden City, England. The company was founded by Jack Cohen in Hackney, London in 1919. In 2011, it was the third-largest retailer in the world measured by gross revenues and the ninth-largest in the world measured by revenues. It has shops in Ireland, the United Kingdom, the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Slovakia. It is the market leader of groceries in the UK (where it has a market share of around 28.4%).

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